The Spiritual Warrior – Practical Application

An enlightened Warden of a medium-high security prison near Bastrop, Texas, through the auspices of the psychology department, authorized More To Life Weekends at the federal institution. In fact, we did many of those weekends there, back in the '80s.

In one of those weekends, there was a tall dude, whose musculature was so defined, that when he walked or moved, it was like a rolling anatomy education in how muscles move our bones. Just for grins, I asked him if he got that body by working out once. He looked horrified, and said, "No m'am! I work out Every Day." (I was making the point about daily processing and the resultant benefits.)

In order to develop the spiritual warrior within, so that it is as definitive as that man's musculature, it is as necessary to engage Reality daily, as it was for that inmate to work out every day. I am using the word "Reality" to define the world that IS, the world God made, the world that sometimes exists separately from the reality in our heads – the Real World vs our personal world view.

So how do you do that? How do you practice being a spiritual warrior daily? What does it mean to engage Reality? Truthfully, I am not sure. There doesn't seem to be some hard and fast rule to go by – except that change is the order of the day (and night).

My current spin on this is that I start with Plan A (the 'right' plan, according to My World). Generally it's not too long before Reality screws it up. For instance, today – I had My World going along just fine. Then I got an email that I was expecting, but it didn't have the words in it that it Should Have (according to My World). In fact, it took me about 3.5 hours to respond in a spiritual warrior way. One reason it took so long is because I wanted that email to have been a testimonial to my wisdom. It wasn't … far from it. So it took me awhile to comprehend the words, go through my reactions to having My World upset. Another reason it took so long is because I was invested in creating connection, possibility, and an innovative way forward. 

End Result: My World was smaller than Reality. As a result of engaging with Reality, a more solid foundation can be built for something that matters to me. Experience has taught me that Reality offers gifts unimaginable in My World. And I sometimes find it difficult to abandon my cherished fantasy world.